Because of their classical character, muzzle-loading firearms are popular among sport enthusiasts. For shooting with this kind of firearms, normally, a primer is applied to a rear end of a breech plug inserted in one end of the barrel (the breech end of the barrel), and this primer is used to ignite a powder charge situated inside the barrel, at a front end of said breech plug, whereby front end means the end closest to the muzzle and the rear end the end furthest away from the muzzle.
A problem involved with this kind of firearms is the access to the rear end of the breech plug, which must be accessed in order to insert a primer, to replace a used primer or the withdraw a primer when unloading the firearm. Further, access to the breech plug should preferably be easy in order to allow for easy cleaning of the corresponding parts of the firearm.
Traditionally, access to the breech plug has sometimes required the barrel to be removed, which, of course, may represent an inconvenience.
US-B1-6604311 discloses a lever-operated breech block, which can be pivoted to a removed position in which the user can directly access the breech plug. However, this pivoting mechanism involves a large number of movable parts and interrelated components, which may imply high manufacturing costs and a certain risk for mechanical problems. Thus, one of the objectives of the present invention is to provide for an alternative way of accessing the breach plug or corresponding parts of a firearm. Other objectives of the invention are to provide an improved coupling of the barrel to a body, frame or stock portion or part of the firearm, and to provide an improved block or safety mechanism for preventing accidental detonation of the primer.
Another example of a muzzle-loading firearm is disclosed in my co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/051,282, filed Feb. 4, 2005, and entitled“MUZZLE-LOADING FIREARM.”